Fort Collins Armadillo restaurant sold

FORT COLLINS – At least in the near term, blue-corn green chile enchiladas and weekend karaoke remain on the menu at The Armadillo restaurant in Old Town Fort Collins.

But new owners of the establishment, having paid $1.75 million for the 35,000-square-foot lot and 6,100-square-foot building, are not likely to stay in the restaurant business long, with a plan to redevelop the site to accommodate a multistory retail, office and, perhaps, residential project.

Buyers David Everitt, president of the Everitt Cos., and Dan Eckles, a senior partner in Realtec Commercial Real Estate Services, will lease back the restaurant to owner/founder Louis Lucio, who said he would keep it running for about a year.

SPONSORED CONTENT

Prioritizing mental health in hospice care

Prioritizing mental health support alongside physical comfort, Pathways hospice care aims to enhance the quality of life for patients and their families during one of life's most challenging transitions.

The Armadillo has been a landmark on the Fort Collins restaurant scene for nearly three decades, opening in 1979 as the third Northern Colorado location in a chain that operates locations in LaSalle, the original home, Greeley, Northglenn, Aurora, Arvada, Littleton, Longmont and Broomfield. The Broomfield restaurant was sold on the same day, Dec. 28, as the Fort Collins sale.

Everitt and Eckles said the market for downtown office space had developed to the point that new construction carries less risk than in past years.

“There’s a huge demand for downtown office space in Fort Collins now,” Eckles said. “We think the market is there for this.”

Realtec’s Nate Heckle and Miscio Real Estate Services owner Andy Miscio, who represented Lucio in the transaction, were also mindful of the fast-developing market for downtown properties.

‘Best possible buyers’

“The Harmony corridor will continue to be strong, but we’ll be seeing some renewed and continuing interest in the downtown area,” Heckle said. “I think we found the best possible buyers for this in Dan and David, because of their commitment to the city.”

The purchase does not mean Lucio’s exit from the Fort Collins restaurant business, he said. He is already eyeing locations in south Fort Collins for a new iteration of the Armadillo, perhaps on the Harmony Road corridor or on South College Avenue.

“The lease-back gives me some time to think about that,´ said Lucio, who was the recipient of a Bravo! Entrepreneur Award from the Business Report in 2000 for his success in expanding the Armadillo chain.

Eckles said he and partner Everitt envision a building that would enclose about 70,000 square feet of space, some of it desirable Class A office accommodations, built within the Old Town district’s three-and-a-half-story height limitations.

He said the new development would feature a small amount of public open space, and might even provide a home for the Armadillo should Lucio choose to remain downtown. “We’re going to be looking at a restaurant for that site in any case, so the Armadillo could be a part of that,” Eckles added.

Fort Collins Downtown Development Authority executive director Chip Steiner said he welcomed the transaction, and what it might mean for further downtown projects.

“I think it’s wonderful that they bought it,” Steiner said. “It’s exciting, partly because we haven’t seen much of the Everitts downtown at all. It probably bodes well for that corner, and I’ll be looking forward to seeing a plan for it.”

The simultaneous sale of the Fort Collins and Broomfield Armadillo locations, engineered by Heckle and Miscio, was an off-market transaction in which appropriate buyers were recruited by the brokerage team.

“We created a solution for Louis that he didn’t think was possible,” Heckle said. “He has a lot of pride in and a lot of love for the restaurants he’s built, and there’s still a strong possibility of him having a restaurant in Fort Collins.”